RESEARCH_FILE
Nicholas Bloom
Stanford University
Known for:Pioneer of work-from-home (WFH) economics research, best known for a landmark randomized controlled trial at Ctrip demonstrating simultaneous productivity gains and promotion penalties for remote workers — establishing proximity bias as a measurable career mechanism
SEE THE PRACTICE
Turn a thought this research explains into one clear move.
THE THOUGHT
“No one knows what I'm doing all day”
YOUR RECORDED RESPONSE
“Proximity bias is real — my response is to document output and make it visible, not to simulate presence.”
ONE PRIVATE MOVE
In a private note, write three things you finished today, one thing you advanced, and one thing you can point to tomorrow if needed; save the note without sending anything.
Key findings
- 2015
In a randomized controlled trial with 255 call-center employees at Ctrip, Bloom and colleagues found that remote workers were 13% more productive than office-based counterparts — but were promoted at roughly half the rate, demonstrating for the first time that proximity to managers is a career resource independent of performance output. Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment ↗
- 2022
In a Journal of Economic Perspectives review synthesizing a decade of WFH research, Bloom found that fully remote work cuts coordination capital and mentorship — especially for junior employees — while hybrid arrangements of two to three in-office days largely preserve career networks without the isolation costs of full-time remote, framing the career penalty of remote work as structural and addressable rather than inherent. How working from home works out ↗